A Comparison of Sanatan Hindu Dharma with Western Theology
Sanatan Dharma has no orthodoxy -there is no one shared
creed. In the diversity of this religion there is
however one common base - all sects believe in only one
ultimate Truth. The religion worships one supreme
reality (referred to by many names) and teaches that
through knowledge, faith, introspection and dedication
to self-improvement, all souls ultimately realize Truth.
Sanatan Dharma accepts all spiritual pursuits by
sincere seekers of Truth and hence embraces paths from
strict monism and theistic dualism to sects that do not
consider it necessary to recognize a God or a being
higher than the perfect man.
A Hindu's dharma explains that the soul reincarnates
until all karmas are resolved and realization of God
occurs. The magnificent holy temples, the peaceful
piety of the Hindu home, the subtle metaphysics and the
science of yoga all play their part. Sanatan Dharma is
a mystical religion, leading the devotee to personally
experience the Truth within, finally reaching the
pinnacle of consciousness where man and God are one
(Aham Brahmasmi - I am Brahaman), where the individual
is in Sachitananda (true existence and conscious bliss).
Before one can begin the analysis of the differences in
Hindu philosophy and western ideals, it is important to
stress that Hindus do not condemn any religion as wrong
or void of meaning. On the contrary, Hindus believe
that all religions are paths to the same God (different
trails up the same mountain leading to a common peak),
and Hindus will study other religions in an effort to
assimilate those teachings into their own religious
ideals and personal philosophy. Hindus believe that all
life is sacred, to be loved and revered, and therefore
Hindus do not condemn worshipers in other religions but
accept them as travelers on the path to the Ultimate
Truth.
A good starting point to see difference in western and
eastern religions is to identify differences on the
creation of the universe. Hindus believe in endless
cycles of creation, preservation and destruction. There
is no absolute end to the world; neither is there a
duality of God and world, but a unity. Westerners
differ in that they believe that God created the world
and at some point in the future He will bring about its
destruction. He is distinct from it, and rules it from
above, stressing a dualistic nature of the world.
Eastern thoughts on this God stress that there is one
true and absolute Self or God, where all souls are
destined to receive God's grace through experience,
according to their understanding and temperament - God
is pure love and consciousness. Western philosophy says
that there is one true God and one true religion. Those
who accept it will enjoy God's grace, and all others,
unless they repent and come to this God, will suffer
eternally. God is often depicted in Western religions
as loving as well as wrathful, even the "jealous God" of
the Bible. Eastern religions explain that personal,
inner and often mystical experience of God is the crux
of the philosophy, where man can ultimately know God
during earthly life. Thus, the Hindu's search is one
that leads further and further inward, requiring intense
introspection. A western view teaches that it is
presumptuous for man to seek personal knowledge of God,
where the linchpin of religion is not experience but
faith. In the eyes of a westerner, to claim that an
earthly man is able to transcend into God-hood would be
seen as sacrilegious. The typical westerner seeks God
not inside himself, but rather in a social context, the
experience of communion and God's grace residing outside
of the body.
Easterners view the proof of God's existence through
direct communion, and indirectly through enlightened
gurus, the God-realized men, and the revealed scriptures
they bring forth. Western religions teach that the
proof of God's love and promise for man is in the person
of his prophets and in his unchanging and unique
revealed scripture.
Another key difference is the concept of Hell - Hindus
do not believe in a physically located Hell as such.
Hell can be described as the cycle of samsara, which
upon reaching enlightenment, is seen to be unreal. God
is love and is inextricably one with the soul, guiding
it through karma into dharma and finally to liberation.
Hell, then, is thought of as a lower astral realm and
is not eternal. It exists as a period of karmic
intensity or suffering, a state of mind in life or
between lives.
Western views on Hell are quite the opposite. On
judgment day, the physical body of every soul that ever
lived is brought to life. God consigns pure souls to
heaven and sinners to hell, a physical place where the
body burns without being consumed and one suffers
knowing he will never be with God. If banishment to Hell
is the westerner's punishment for sin, this is because
the very concept of sin that he holds is far removed
from that of the Hindu. For a Hindu, sin is only of the
mind, not of the soul, which is pure. In so saying, the
Hindu believes that the soul of a person is not
inherently evil, rather it is immature, causing it to
act in the karmic world. Once matured, the soul can and
does realize God.
Eastern philosophy teaches man that he is free to choose
his form of worship, for all paths lead ultimately to
God. There is no judgment day, for God does not judge or
punish. As a result, today we find variety in the Hindu
system - we see sects that use idols to focus on God
while other sects, such as Sikhs do not use idol worship
as a vehicle to reach God. The Rig-Veda opens by saying
that "Truth is one, sages call it by many names."
Western views often take the other extreme by saying
that only one path leads to God, and that all others are
false and futile.
This difference arises from the way one interprets
religion - a good example is the concept of evil.
Eastern religions profess that there is no evil. All is
good and all is God. No force in the world or in man
opposes God, though the instinctive-intellectual mind
keeps us from knowledge of him. The equivalent of evil
in Sanatan Dharma is often termed avidya (ignorance).
Because people are deluded from reality, they can not
perceive nor relate to ultimate Truth; instead, they use
reason and conventional truth. Hence, we see through
conventional truth, which, in the Hindu system, allows
for the worship of many deities while maintaining that
ultimately there is only one true Being. The analogy
often made to someone that is ignorant is that his soul
is not reflected well into his mind - the mirror is
dusty, and one must cleanse himself through sacrifice in
order to clarify this mirror. This allows the
individual to personify the God that is already in him
(All are born divine - one only need to reveal that
divinity). Thus, man's plight is absolved by following
one of the teachings from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
1.3.28, which says that "...let us move from unreal to
real, from darkness to light and from death to
immortality." The scriptures tell us that a man's
suffering is but his soul's immaturity - he is ever on a
progressive path that leads from ignorance to knowledge,
and from death to immortality.
Conversely, in the west there is belief in a genuine
evil in the world, a force that opposes God's will.
This evil is embodied in Satan and his demons, and can
even be found in man, who by his very nature has some
inherent evil. Man's plight is due to disobedience to
God's will, to non-belief and non-acceptance of His law.
The reason for man's suffering is then in his own
hands; he must change his ways to gain favor with God.
It is also important to touch upon the differences
between eastern and western religions from a perspective
of their individual origins. Eastern religion is
cosmic, eternal, cyclical, transcending a human history,
which is fixed in linear time. Sanatan Dharma has never
ceased to exist, nor will it ever, regardless of the
presence of humans - Truth will continue to be Truth.
This being the case, stress is placed on the revelation
of God's presence in the here and now. Western religion
is more linear, beginning with a prophet or event.
Stress is placed on the past and on future rewards or
punishments.
History is linear, and as such, never repeats itself.
Eastern doctrines tend to be subtle, complex and even
paradoxical. There is a predominant freedom to worship
and to believe in a variety of ways. Alternative paths
are seen as God's divine will at work. Western
doctrines tend to be more simple, clear and rational.
Worship and belief are formalized, exacting and
required. Western doctrines are often typecast as
exclusive and dogmatic - a stark contrast with the
universal philosophies of the east.
At this juncture, it is relevant to note the differing
views regarding the end of human life as well as an
ultimate salvation. Western religion tells of salvation
coming at the end of the world, in a process that
requires little, if any, introspection. This view is
strictly dualistic though minor mystical sects may
provide exceptions. Hindus see the goal of
enlightenment and liberation to be attainable in this
lifetime, within the context of time, within man
himself. Thus, the role of salvation is not simply the
dwelling with God, but rather, a final enlightened
dwelling with God.
Mr. Patel is currently a second-year student at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA